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Merlin a whiz at digital printing

Alan Morrell
10:10 p.m. EDT October 13, 2013

Doug Smith, president, left, and Jeffrey Gilbert, marketing director, at Merlin Digital Printing Solutions in Gates, look over prints. The images were printed on the company’s new Xeikon 8500 printer, one of the first of a new generation of high-volume, high-quality dry ink digital presses that specializes in panoramic images.
(Photo: SHAWN DOWD)

Back in the dark days before digital imaging exploded on the scene, a Gates printing company was already on board.

Merlin Digital Printing Solutions was founded in 1994, before most people knew about the Internet and all its possibilities, before digital photography wiped out film. Merlin had one of the first of the "new generation" of high-volume, high-quality dry-ink digital presses, and the look of things has only improved since then.

Printing is all about making images look as real as possible. Digital is about making it quicker and easier. Merlin has merged the combination to the point that they now produce humongous, top-shelf panoramic prints more than 100 feet long, as well as a slew of other products.

"They got into the digital-print industry when it was in its infancy," said Jeff Gilbert, who works in sales and marketing for Merlin, of the company's founders. "Merlin managed that equipment well and capitalized on it."

Merlin now is a digital printing solutions company that makes products like brochures, credit union statements and materials used for drug trials. Their clients are in fields including manufacturing, research, financial and advertising. Merlin specializes in variable data printing — which allows the company to change text, graphics and images from one printed piece to the next, using information from a database and without slowing the printing process.

That means customized results for specific customers, a sort of direct-marketing approach. By example, Gilbert mentioned a project Merlin did for Air Canada when the airline was changing its rewards program.

Using demographics that Air Canada had of its customers, Merlin created custom panels in its rewards advertising. "Images tailored to your interests," Gilbert said.

Merlin has done similar work for financial companies, providing "unique documents" to customers in their 401(k)-type statements. Merlin has done special projects, like surveys. A key element of Merlin's products is that the company can produce "one variable data file that allows us to manufacture a long run with every piece different," Gilbert said.

The company started as a commercial research project in the old RIT Research Cor. A photo-processing company was looking for a digital photo-finishing replacement for the traditional "wet chemistry." That led to a contract to develop the hardware and support system for the concept. The project became a separate corporation that company leaders bought when the sponsor dropped out because of money problems.

Merlin is especially proud of a new printer, the Xeikon 8500, which Merlin said is the first is the U.S. The 8500 "opens the color gamut for us," Gilbert said, with four times the resolution of other printers. Merlin hopes that opens the company to new markets, particularly photographers.

Merlin recently produced a 140-foot-long series of panoramic images that RIT professor Frank Cost took of the 2012 festival season. The images were displayed during the recent Fringe Festival.

"Because the Xeikon machine is able to print on a continuous roll, we designed the gallery show in one continuous 140-foot-long piece that winds through both rooms of the gallery," Cost wrote in an email.